Sven, the Rogue Knight, is a versatile meleestrengthhero with superior physical power coupled with powerful utility abilities. He can fulfill various roles, but is often played as a semi-carry due to his high utility even without items. He possesses a versatile arsenal, from Warcry, which grants armor that can be used for escaping as well as pushing, to the throwable Storm Hammer that stuns enemies around the targeted unit. With enough items, Sven has the potential to be a strong late-game carry due to his ultimate, which increases his damage, making him hit up to three times as hard, which can then be used in conjunction with his Great Cleave to secure multiple kills with just a few swings of his sword. This immense power granted to him solely by his ultimate makes him one of strongest late-game carries in the game, and arguably the strongest semi-carry of all, as his killing presence remains even if he decides to build more supportive and tanky utility items. A truly frightening enemy to go up against if farmed, strong and versatile, Sven is a solid addition to almost every team composition.

Sven is the bastard son of a Vigil Knight, born of a Pallid Meranth, raised in the Shadeshore Ruins. With his father executed for violating the Vigil Codex, and his mother shunned by her wild race, Sven believes that honor is to be found in no social order, but only in himself. After tending his mother through a lingering death, he offered himself as a novice to the Vigil Knights, never revealing his identity. For thirteen years he studied in his father's school, mastering the rigid code that declared his existence an abomination. Then, on the day that should have been his In-Swearing, he seized the Outcast Blade, shattered the Sacred Helm, and burned the Codex in the Vigil's Holy Flame. He strode from Vigil Keep, forever solitary, following his private code to the last strict rune. Still a knight, yes...but a Rogue Knight. He answers only to himself.

Black King Bar is the most important core item for Sven. It is his only defense against disables, and provides a good boost to Sven's strength and damage. However sometimes the item could be purchased later since it does not increase your farm speed.

Situational:

Drum of Endurance will enable Sven to quickly get into combat and survive teamfights. It can be bought if Sven's early game does not go well enough to afford bigger items.

Mask of Madness compensates for his low attack and move speed. With lifesteal, Sven can recover his health with just a few hits on the enemy.

Armlet of Mordiggian is a good early teamfight item as it provides overall growth in damage and attack speed as well as additional health and armor while active. Its active could be switched twice in quick succession in a pinch to gain additional health.

Echo Sabre essentially acts as a crit, allowing Sven's burst to increase significantly for a cheap price. Additionally, this second attack works identically to his regular attacks, meaning, if used while possessing a Daedalus, gives Sven twice the chance to crit.

Helm of the Dominator is an alternative to Mask of Madness, providing more armor than speed, and also allowing Sven to dominate a creep and use them to stack camps with it, allowing him to farm quickly thanks to his cleave.

Blink Dagger greatly improves Sven's mobility, allowing him to initiate teamfights as well as gank unsuspecting enemies, which can make a big difference in game outcomes.

Sange and Yasha is a worthwhile pick up for the mid game, especially because Sven can obtain it quickly - The attack speed, movement speed and added damage (partially added through strength) are all things Sven needs while the maim makes it harder for enemies to kite him.

Daedalus is the attack damage item Sven needs, as it gives Sven the critical chance that allows him to destroy enemies in just a few hits.

Monkey King Bar provides less damage compared to Daedalus. However, True Strike counters Evasion, and the Mini-bash part allows Sven to chase and manfight better.

Moon Shard grants a huge boost in attack speed. Though largely lacking in utility and thus exceeded in usefulness by several other choices, a Moon Shard is a powerful luxury item that ensures Sven's continued dominance in a winning game. As Moon Shard can be consumed to permanently add attack speed, it does not need to take up an useful item slot that most other lategame items do.

Assault Cuirass can be considered in the late game, as the negative armour debuff, attack speed and massive armor gain allows for Sven to truly become a tank.

Heart of Tarrasque not only provides Sven with much better survivability, it also gives a lot strength bonus, which greatly increases the damage from God's Strength.

Satanic is the natural evolution of Helm of the Dominator and provides Sven with a good amount of strength on top of the stat bonuses from Helm. The active synergises well with Sven's large DPS, ensuring that he will be able to get back into full health should he be allowed to continue attacking.

Refresher Orb gives Sven twice the time of Satanic, also double Storm Hammer in quick succession. The biggest contribute it provides is the 10 second Black King Bar in late game when Sven may be kited due to the Spell Immunity time loss. It also gives additional time for God's Strength to reactivate so that Sven can bring down towers after teamfight or reactivate after buyback. Beware of Sven's small mana pool since Refresh active costs a lot of mana.

Abyssal Blade, while providing very little natural damage by itself, does provide an additional form of lockdown, granting Sven a minimum of 4 seconds of lockdown coupled with Storm Hammer (and without counting any additional bashes you get), which is more than enough to secure a kill on any enemy who doesn't have anyone to help them around. It also makes Sven much more difficult, if not near impossible to manfight as Sven's already overwhelming damage becomes all the more terrifying by the fact that he can outright stop an enemy from attacking through magic immunity. Finally, Sven is also one of the better users of this item in terms of damage due to the fact that it also provides strength, further increasing his damage during his ultimate. It also comes from Vanguard, making him nearly impervious to damage from most jungle creeps and most summons, though this feature is largely useless to a hero like Sven.

The phrases "Play Blame the host" and "Play Bad host" are references to the original Warcraft III DotA gameplay when game stability depended on the quality of internet connection on the host player.

Storm Hammer​ was named Storm Bolt in the early beta phases and was renamed into Storm Hammer at one point. It is also its original name in DotA1 and reflected in one of Sven's cast responses in Dota2, where he's referring to it as Play "Storm Bolt".

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